Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Kerrzy's Notebook: Friendly Fire

It's been a tough week or so for some members of the Florida Panthers - not only did they have to watch out for opposing players out on the ice, they've had to watch out for each other lately!

As the second period drew to a close in Monday night's shootout loss to the Oilers, Panthers defenseman Bryan Allen was channelling one-time Florida resident Bryan Marchment as he lined up Robert Nilsson for a hit that would very likely have put him back on the IR - the problem was, Nilsson dodged the check and Allen creamed teammate Gregory Campbell.

Yes, that's the second time in just over a week that a Florida Panther has taken out a teammate!

That hit follows Keith "Paul Bunyan" Ballard's accidental attempt to break his stick over the head of his goalie, Tomas Vokoun last Monday. Just for kicks, here's that video again incase you're one of the 10 people that hasn't seen it:

It's not the first time that Panthers players have had to watch out for each other on the ice - remember Richard Zednik? His neck was cut open by Panthers teammate Olli Jokinen back in 2008.

Back to the present though - in Florida's very next game following that chop on Vokoun, Ballard did what any self-respecting guy who had just taken out his own goalie would do - he took out the other team's goalie!

It was the last minute of overtime between the Panthers and the Avalanche and Ballard came flying down the right wing with the puck on his stick. He cut to the net, lost his footing and smoked Avs goalie Craig Anderson; then took a couple of sucker punches from Colorado defenseman Adam Foote.

You've really got to feel for Bryan Allen here though - he probably thought he was about to make the highlights for a crushing Scott Stevens type hit on an unsuspecting Robert Nilsson...instead, he takes out one of his own players.

He can take solace though in the fact that even the best players sometimes wind up bumping into each other:

It doesn't take much skill to accidentally run into a teammate - but what about making two opposing players knock into each other? Pavel Datsyuk made it look easy in this clip from 2007:

Collisions like these aren't just limited to hockey. I'm not really sure what happens here, but Michigan Wolverines receiver Junior Hemingway winds up being taken out at the knees by a teammate:

I guess the moral of the story is: keep your eyes open and your head up, especially if you play for the Panthers!

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Who the heck is Kerrzy?

Kerrzy is a Canadian, sports-loving journalist who loves to dish opinion on all things funny, sporty, serious and...well, you get the picture.
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